Religious activity, the favorite escape from God.

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The Five Sadhaks

 

An urgent call came to the great Sage of the North from the Sage of the South

asking for a wise and holy Sadhak to initiate the novices in the spiritual life.

To everyone's astonishment, the Great Sage sent five sadhaks instead of one. To

those who inquired he said cryptically, "We will be lucky of one of them gets to

the Sage."

 

The group had been on the road some days when a messenger came running up to

them and said, "The priest of our village has died. We need someone to take his

place." The village seemed a comfortable sort of place and the priest's salary

was a handsome one. One of the monks was seized with pastoral concern for the

people. "I should not be a devout Hindu," he said, "if I did not stay on to

serve these people."

 

So he dropped out.

 

Some days later they happened to stay at the palace of a king who took a fancy

to one of the monks. "Stay with us," said the king, "and you shall marry my

daughter. And when I die, you will succeed to the throne."

 

The monk was attracted to the luster of kingship, so he said,"What better way to

influence the people of this kingdom than to become king? I should not be a

devout Hindu if I did not seize this opportunity to serve the interests of

religion."

 

So he dropped out too.

 

The rest of the group went on their way and one night, in a hilly region, came

upon a solitary hut that was occupied by a pretty girl who offered them

hospitality and thanked God for having sent the monks to her. Her parents had

been murdered by mountain bandits and the girl was all alone and full of

anxiety.

 

Next morning, when it was time to leave, one of the monks said, "I shall stay

with this girl. I should not be a devout Hindu if I did not practice

compassion."

 

So he dropped out too.

 

The remaining two finally came to a Hindu village and found, to their horror,

that all the villagers had abandoned their religion and were under the sway of a

Buddhist theologian. One of the monks said, "I owe it to these people and to the

very Lord Shiva himself to stay on here and win them back to the faith.

 

The fifth monk eventually got to the Sage of the South.

 

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I have always dropped out for the best of reasons: to reform the liturgy, to

change the religious structures, to update the study of scripture, mantras, to

help and teach deluded people and to make theology relevant.

 

Religious activity, the favorite escape from God.